New volunteers to help promote resilience

Twelve new volunteers joined up on 16 June with the Birmingham Resilience Team to become Resilience Champions. The highway lay assessors visited the Council Emergency Co-ordinating Centre to receive a presentation on the role of Resilience Champions, community preparedness and the role of the City Council in an emergency.

As part of the Considerate Contractor Scheme, the lay assessors are trained to carry out an audit that will help to evaluate the quality of services provided by contractors and utilities working on our roads and streets.

Lay assessors in the Council Emergency Co-ordinating Centre

Veronica Coleman, Principal Emergency Planning Officer said, “The lay assessors are volunteers from all walks of life. Their commitment, experience, and community spiritedness lends itself readily to the role of our resilience champions who spread the word amongst communities about being prepared for emergency situations.”

The lay assessors were particularly interested in Birmingham Community Alert – our free emergency messaging service, and were keen to sign up and encourage others to do the same.

Maureen Murphy said “we need to think outside the box to find ways of encouraging people to sign up for alerts, we should consider doing more promotions at local shopping centres”